Writing Portfolio

POUGHKEEPSIE – Marist college alumnus, John King, who has been a lead investigator in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper case, will speak to students, law enforcement officials and the general public on April 11 at the college.

John King, assistant police chief in Montgomery County, Md., will discuss the investigation of the sniper case during a talk that will begin at 7 p.m. in the Nelly Goletti Theatre, located in the Student Center on the Marist Campus.

King received his Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from Marist in 1976.

The lecture is sponsored by Marist College and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. For more information, contact Tim Massie at (845) 575-3171.

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POUGHKEEPSIE – Noted terrorism expert Mayer Nudell will discuss "Freedom from Fear: Understanding Contemporary Terrorism" during a talk at Marist College next week. His presentation starts at 7 p.m. on April 9, in room 349 of the Student Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Nudell is an acknowledged authority on terrorism, crisis management, travel security and related international political and national security affairs. A former diplomat, his last foreign service assignment was to the Office of Counterterrorism & Emergency Planning as the Latin American and Middle Eastern specialist.

Nudell is a certified security and safety consultant. He worked on safety and security at the Calgary Olympics, the official opening of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Presidents Summit on the Future of America. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, Nudell has co-authored two books, The Handbook for Effective Emergency & Crisis Management and No One a Neutral: Political Hostage-Taking in the Modern World.

The lecture is sponsored by the Marist College and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. For more information, contact Dr. Vernon J. Vavrina, associate professor of political science at 575-3000, ext. 2276.

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POUGHKEEPSIE – Government officials from throughout the Hudson Valley are expected to attend a conference on the future of “e-government” on March 21 in the Nelly Goletti Theatre at Marist College. The conference begins at 8:30 a.m. and is open to the public.

Speakers include William Mead, a writer on e-government issues and an administrator for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission; Norm Jackins, chief information officer for Westchester County; and Chan-Gon Kim, creator of the “Digital City” project for Seoul, South Korea.

The luncheon speaker will be Sharon Dawes, executive director of the Center for Technology in Government at SUNY-Albany, who will discuss the future of e-government.

“Government agencies are rapidly becoming electronic,” said Donald Calista, director of the Marist Graduate Center for Public Policy. “From filing income taxes and registering cars to paying benefits and locating information, the web is transforming the way government conducts business. This conference will feature best practices and future directions of e-government.”

The conference is sponsored by the Marist College Master of Public Administration Program and the Mid-Hudson chapter of the American Society for Public Administration, and funded by a grant from the McCann Foundation.

There is a $20 registration fee, which includes lunch. For further information or to register, call the Marist Master of Public Administration office at (845) 575-3000, ext. 2999 or (845) 575-3343.

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POUGHKEEPSIE – Recent Marist College graduate Kayla Ferguson, of Marysville, WA, has been awarded a grant by the prestigious U.S. Student Fulbright Program. Ferguson will travel to Germany in August and spend the following academic year on a Fulbright Grant instructing German students in the English Language. Ferguson received her Bachelor of the Arts degree in psychology/special education at Marist’s 57th Commencement on May 17.

“Kayla has been a model student at Marist,” said college president Dennis J. Murray. “She is a young renaissance woman with varied interests who will make a major impact on her community and in the world in the years ahead. This is a significant honor for both Kayla and Marist.”

Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills. Sponsored by the United States Department of State, Fulbright provides funds for students, scholars and professionals to undertake graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools.

Ferguson’s award, a teaching assistantship, requires intense study of the German language and involves teaching English and American Studies to German high school students. She will gain a greater understanding of the German culture by learning the teaching methods of that country and by taking advantage of the extended opportunities to travel and explore the culture of Germany and Europe.

Ferguson will receive a monthly stipend, insurance, and transportation cost as part of the Fulbright Teaching Assistantship.

At Marist, Ferguson was a member of the college Deans’ Circle, a select program for academically-talented students designed to mentor them through the scholarship and fellowship process. She was also a member of the Psi Chi Psychology Honor Society, the Resident Student Council, Teachers of Tomorrow, the Psychology club, and the Big Brothers/Big Sister mentor program. Last summer, while studying Arabic for ten weeks in Jordan and Syria, Ferguson organized a program to teach students the English language through a community center in Jordan.

Upon returning to the U.S. after her Fulbright year in Germany, Ferguson plans to attend graduate school in international education or cross-cultural communication.

Kayla is the daughter of Karen Ferguson of Marysville.

Marist is a selective liberal arts college recognized nationally for its use of technology in and out of the classroom. Marist was named one of the 100 top colleges and Universities in the country in teaching and fostering values and character development by Te Templeton Foundation. Marist offers 29 bachelor’s degrees and seven master’s degrees, and is located along the banks of the Hudson River, halfway between New York City and the state capitol of Albany. The college has been consistently ranked in the top tier of colleges and universities in the northern U.S. in News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges Guide, is listed in Barron’s Best Buys in College Education, and was named of the 100 most wired colleges and universities in the country by Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine.